Family Portrait
by jayhogartismyangel
Summary: Clare's family is falling apart, who can she possibly turn to? Spoilers for season ten. EClare Eli/Clare some mentions of Drew/Alli and Drew/Alli/Dave
1. Prologue

**Family Portrait**

**Summary: Clare's family is falling apart.**

**Warnings: Based off of spoilers about Clare, for the first few season ten episodes.**

**Part One**

Clare Edwards sighed as she laid snug in her bed, in the darkness of her bedroom. Pretty, bright blue eyes stared off into space as she listened to her parents' angry voices get louder and louder. It was almost as if they were trying to compete with one another on who could be the loudest. And the she had to guess, she'd say that they'd forgotten all about her even being in the same house as them. And it made sense. Her older sister, Darcy was her parent perfect little angel. No one ever forgot about _her. _Not the way that they did Clare. Of course she knew that her parents loved her. She was their youngest daughter after all. It was just that, at times it didn't feel like they did. And she wasn't even talking about their fighting or the fact that they could get divorced. It was because she was always being compared to her older sister. In their eyes, nothing that Clare did, compared to what Darcy had done.

In a way, she resented her sister. Of course she loved Darcy. How could she not? Darcy was her family. But still. Darcy wasn't here and because of that, Clare had to suffer through her mom and dad's fighting, alone with no one to talk to.

She couldn't tell her friends about it. Alli, Connor, Dave, and Wesley wouldn't understand. Their families were all still whole. And besides, she wasn't one to ask for help, even when she needed it. She didn't want to bother her friends with her problems and get all angsty about it. Besides, it wasn't like they would understand anyway. Their families were perfect. All three of her friends' parents were still together. Her's were on the verge of breaking apart, of divorcing.

She shut her eyes tight and covered her head with the pillow as the screaming got louder. She heard something get thrown into a wall and then clatter loudly onto the floor and she tried to ignore it, not wanting to hear it. Tears stung her eyes and slid down her cheeks as she tried to get some sleep.

Clare sighed, the next day at school as she walked down the halls with her best friend, Alli Bhandari. Alli was rambling on about the new kid, Drew and about how cute he was and how she was going to ask him out. She couldn't really find it in herself to listen, though. Her mind was elsewhere.

"Clare, are you listening to me?" Alli asked her, snapping her fingers infront of her friends face as they stopped at their lockers.

The tiny brunette jumped at the sound of her friend's voice, and turned her head ever so slightly to look at her dark haired, best friend. She tried to smile, a fake happy look immediatly plastering onto her face. "Uh-huh. You're interested in that Drew guy." She lied.

Alli frowned at her and stamped her foot. "No, you weren't, Clare. I know you and I know when you lie. What's with you today?" She asked of her.

Clare looked away quickly and began to pull her books from her locker haphazardely. She needed to get away from here. Needed to get away from the question before she spilled her guts about her family problems. "Nothing, nothing. I just...I just wanna get a good seat in my English class." She replies, giving her a quick smile that didn't reach her eyes.

The black haired girl rolled her eyes and shook her head at her friend. "Oh Clare." She said with an affectionate sigh. "_What _am I going to do with you?"

Clare arrived in English class moments later and looked around for a seat. Seeing a seat near the front, she took it. She didn't have this class with any of her friends. It was eleventh grade English class. A few weeks before school had started, she'd been called into the school to discuss her grades in English and it was determined that eleventh grade English suited her perfectly, since it was her best subject. It had taken some getting used to, of course. She wasn't quite used to having a class with atleast Alli, if not the rest of her friends.

Mrs. Kwan stepped inside the room, with a smile on her face. She had an armful of books that she smiled at them over, before she stacked the books on her already quite messy desk. Slowly, she turned to face the eyes of the class and said, "We're going to do a little project. I'm going to put you all into groups of two and I'm also going to give you a book. Your job, is to perform a scene from the book and to write a short essay on what you thought the book meant. The first group, is going to be Clare Edwards and Eli Goldsworthy." She walked torwards Clare's desk and sat a book down on the solid wood. Her eyes went to the person sitting next to Clare and she gave a small smile.

Clare heard a chuckle beside her and saw a long fingered hand reach out to grab the book. "Atonement. Of course she'd have us read that."

"You've read the book before?" She asked in suprise, turning in her seat to look at him. She took in his straight, dark hair, black t-shirt with the blue logo and the black pants, before looking into his green eyes.

He laughed and smiled at her, showing off a set of white teeth. "No. But I know what it's about. So how should we do this?" He asked of her.

Clare blinked at him in confusion and tilted her head to the side. "Do about what?" She questioned.

"This project. Where should we meet up, after school?" Eli asked.

Clare turned away and bit her lip, fiddling with the things on her desk nervously. "Um...how about your place? I'm...not supposed to have boys over when my parents aren't home." She turned to look at him again and saw him staring at her with something like concern in his eyes.

He shrugged a shoulder and nodded. "Sure. Just meet me outside at the end of school today." He told her quietly, studying her closely, wondering why this girl seemed so sad. He promised himself that he'd get to the bottom of it. After all, it was a shame when a girl as pretty as Clare Edwards didn't smile.

**To be continued...**

**Next Chapter: We learn more about Eli, projects, reveals, and rumors.**


	2. Chapter One

**Family Portrait**

**Part Two**

Eli leaned against his shiny black hearse as he waited for Clare to come outside. When he'd last seen her, she was talking to a friend of her's and he figured it might be a few minutes. There'd been a blank look on her face as she'd talked to her friend, but Eli could've sworn that he'd seen a flicker of pain run across her face when the other girl had mentioned her parents. He'd wondered what it was about and why this girl, who was Clare's friend for a substantially long time, hadn't taken notice.

Biting his lower lip, he stuck his hands into the pockets of his dark jeans as he saw her come out of the school, stopping to hug her three friends goodbye. He watched as her bright blue eyes landed on him and as she began to head closer, torwards him.

"Hey." She said breathlessly, giving him a rather shy smile as her eyes travelled over to his car. "Is this your car?" She asked curiously, turning to look at him, pale cheeks flushed, short hair slightly messy, and eyes bright.

Eli doesn't say anything for a few moments, too busy looking her over.

"Eli?" She inquired.

He smiled at her sweetly and pulled away from his car. "Hey. You ready to go?"

Clare nodded and moved forward and Eli opened up the car door quickly, letting Clare slide inside, put her bookbag and laptop case on the ground beside her feet and put her seatbelt on, before he shut it.

Eli slid in to the drivers seat, fastening his seatbelt and putting his hands on the wheel. "So how long have you lived here?" He asked, trying to make conversation.

She turned slightly in her seat to smile politely at him. "I've lived here all my life, but before I went to Degrassi, my older sister and I went to a private school. I decided to go to Degrassi for the gifted program."

He raised an eyebrow at her and gave her a quick glance, while trying to concentrate on his driving. "You're in the gifted program?" He asked of her curiously. He knew that she was a sophmore and was only in his English class because she was so great at it, but he'd had no idea that she was part of the gifted program too.

Clare grinned at the interest she heard in his voice and nodded. "Yeah, I am. It's really great. My old school had nothing like that. It's where I met my best friends and my-" She trailed off and her smile disappeared from her lips rather quickly.

Eli frowned at that and questioned, "Your what?"

She let out a huff of nervous breath and squeezed her eyes shut, leaning farther back into her seat. "I was going to say my first boyfriend but he was my friend first. And it's not even like, I like him anymore, you know? I just hate how much he has changed to fit in with his jock friends and his cheerleader girlfriend."

He didn't say anything as he stopped the car infront of a small house and took the keys out of the ignition. "Well he really doesn't seem worth it, then." He finally said, looking at her from the corners of his green eyes.

Clare threw her head back and laughed at that. "You sound just like my best friend, Alli!" She commented lightly, eyes lighting up impishly.

About ten minutes later, Clare and Eli are sitting close together at the kitchen table, heads bent over the book, when a woman came in with her arms full of grocery bags. Clare watched as Eli jumped up to help the woman, that she assumed to be his mom place the bags on the counter.

The woman turned moments later and her eyes landed on Clare who gave her a smile. "Oh, Elijah. You didn't tell me that we had company!" She said accusingly, walking closer to the table and holding her hand out to Clare. "I'm his mother, Abigail." She gave her a wide grin as she shook the teenaged girl's hand.

"It's nice to meet you, Mrs. Goldsworty. I'm Clare Edwards. I'm his partner for an English assignment." The tiny brunette said, blue eyes sparkling as she pulled her hand away from the older woman's.

Abigail leans against the counter. "Please, call me Abigail. And what exactly is your's and Elijah's assignment?" She asked her curiously as her sixteen year old son went to sit down beside Clare once more.

"Well, we've got to read this book, perform a scene from it, and then write and a short essay on what the story is about." Clare replied, sticking her thumb in place and closing the book just enough for Abigail to see the cover.

"That's a good book." She commented with a smile. "I've read it before."

"Mom." Eli hissed under his breath, as he indicated for her to leave them be.

Abigail smiled fondly at her son as she nodded slightly. "Well, I should be going. I've got to get to work pretty soon and I need to get ready." She runs her hand through her son's sleek black hair. "I've already prepared some chicken for your dinner, all you really need to do is heat it up."

"Your mom seems nice." Clare told him, as she looked down, fingers tracing invisible patterns onto the kitchen table.

Eli watched her closely, noting the sad expression once again on her face. He usually didn't care so much, usually didn't _let _himself care so much, but he just couldn't seem to help it where this girl was concerned. He'd just met her and already he was worried for her. He knew what the feeling was like, to think that no one cared. When his mother had still been with his father, he'd felt that way. His father had constantly ridiculed him for the way that he dressed and the fascination that he had with death, and the fact that from the time that he'd been thirteen, he'd wanted a hearse when he was finally old enough to drive. He'd known from the time that he was very young, that his father wanted the perfect son. The one who dressed "normal" and was the captain for every school sport or team. He'd never been able to please his father, unlike his older brother, Matthew who was God knows where. Matthew had disappeared years before his father left and hadn't even tried to keep in contact with his family. He was going to figure her out and he was going to help her, that much he was certain of. He was going to make her trust him enough to be able to tell him what was going on with her. She needed someone to talk to, and he wanted to be that person.

**To be continued: Another fight between her parents, Clare confides in Eli.**


End file.
